City icon's days numbered

Say farewell to the water tower and current Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building at 1100 SW Smith St. in downtown Blue Springs.

The $22 million remodeling and renovation project of the public safety building will break ground on March 27, and it includes the removal of the water tower.

As a result, many municipal operations and services will either be temporarily relocated or closed as construction of the new pubilc safety building is expected to last until the summer of 2015.

“Due to the expansion and renovation construction project, many city functions will be temporarily moved,” said Blue Springs Mayor Carson Ross in a press release. “This allows us to reduce the overall cost of the project and reduce the construction process.”

“One of our highest project priorities was that police and city services not be impacted as a result of the construction schedule,” said Blue Springs City Administrator Eric Johnson in a press release. “It is no easy task to vacate an entire city building and maintain essential city functions.”

City services that will be temporarily moving and/or closing:

• Portions of Southwest Smith Street and Southwest 11th Street in downtown Blue Springs will be closed on March 27 and 28 during the water tower removal.

• Blue Springs Police services, such as police administration, the Community & Youth Outreach Unit, staff services and operations bureau staff, will be moving to their temporary location this week at the Paul Consiglio Education Center, at 1504 NW Jefferson St. in Blue Springs. Other police department staff will be relocated to City Hall offices, 903 W. Main St., and the GE Building, 321 AA Highway. To locate specific police services, residents are asked to call the police non-emergency phone number at 816-228-0151.

• Municipal Court, Court Clerk and Records Unit will be closed on March 24 and reopen at the Municipal Annex Building, 1304 W. Main St., on March 27.

• City Council, Planning Commission and other public meetings will move to the Municipal Annex as well. The first City Council meeting at the temporary location will be on April 14, and the first Planning Commission meeting on April 14. The meetings will not be televised on the City Government Access Channel (channel 7 on cable provider Comcast or channel 99 on AT&T U-Verse), but audio recordings of the meetings will be available on the city’s website, www.bluespringsgov.com

• The KCATA Blue Springs Express 170 bus stop at downtown Blue Springs will no longer be available beginning March 26. Commuters are asked to use alternative stops, such as White Oak Plaza, North Ridge Park and Woods Chapel Road Park & Ride locations. For more information, visit the website, www.kcata.org.

• On May 1, the Blue Springs Farmers Market will be relocated at the First Baptist Church of Blue Springs’ parking lot, at 1405 W. Main St.

As previously reported, the Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building will be converted into a three level facility with 72,000 square feet of space. Additional parking lots will be provided at the Smith and 11th Street intersection as well. Funding for this expansion and renovation project was made possible when Blue Springs voters passed a 1/2 cent sales tax increase dedicated to public safety in April 2011. The new public safety building will feature a more customer service-oriented design, according to the city.

In November 2013, representatives from McClaren, Wilson & Lawrie, Inc. and Treanor Architects – the firms that designed the new Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building – said the downtown water tower no longer serves any function because it has “no pressure and storage capacity.”